A sociologist and former fashion model takes readers inside the elite global party circuit of
models and bottles to reveal how beautiful young women are used to boost the status of men
Million-dollar birthday parties megayachts on the French Riviera and $40 000 bottles of
champagne. In today's New Gilded Age the world's moneyed classes have taken conspicuous
consumption to new extremes. In Very Important People sociologist author and former fashion
model Ashley Mears takes readers inside the exclusive global nightclub and party circuit-from
New York City and the Hamptons to Miami and Saint-Tropez-to reveal the intricate economy of
beauty status and money that lies behind these spectacular displays of wealth and leisure.
Mears spent eighteen months in this world of models and bottles to write this captivating
sometimes funny sometimes heartbreaking narrative. She describes how clubs and restaurants pay
promoters to recruit beautiful young women to their venues in order to attract men and get them
to spend huge sums in the ritual of bottle service. These girls enhance the status of the men
and enrich club owners exchanging their bodily capital for as little as free drinks and a
chance to party with men who are rich or aspire to be. Though they are priceless assets in the
party circuit these women are regarded as worthless as long-term relationship prospects and
their bodies are constantly assessed against men's money. A story of extreme gender inequality
in a seductive world Very Important People unveils troubling realities behind moneyed leisure
in an age of record economic disparity--
